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Last night on KDKA news at 11:00, poor David Highfield filed a story about how West Virginia is gearing up for their new poker tables and other table games.

Poor David Highfield had to report on his story about WEST VIRGINIA, a whole different state, live from the North Shore at 11:00 at night with complete darkness and a chain link fence behind him, where someday there will be a casino that won’t have table games.

That is just frickin’ ludicrous. I need to become news director or station manager because my newscasts would kick ass and poor David Highfield would have filed that report from the moon before I sent him to stand in the dark in front of absolutely nothing.

He should have thrown it back to Patrice all,”For KDKA news, I’m David Highfield, reporting live from a dead construction site FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! Back to you.”

27 Comments

I really, really wish local news here would save the live shots for times when it makes even a modicum of sense. And I’m not talking about making some poor smuck stand at the side of the road during an ice storm either…

I couldn’t agree more, Tinare. There are times that I am watching and the anchor goes to a live shot.. and I find myself watching and waiting for the reason that they felt this expenditure neccessary. Just one big waste of time and money.

I have always questioned the live spots from various locations throughout the city. Why does Ralph Iannotti have to stand in front of the jail, courthouse, or Children’s hospital at 11pm to tell us a story about a criminal, the trial or an injured child? I don’t see the point and never have.

That drives me batty too, but as I understand it, the reporter gets paid a little more for a “live” report than he/she does sitting in a chair in a studio. And I don’t expect any of them who aren’t anchors get paid like kings/queens, so … As for what the station gets out of it, it’s part of the “smoke-and-mirrors” deal, fool the viewer into seeing something that isn’t there. “Hey, look, Maude! They’re LIVE again! They sure do a lot of ‘Live’ reports. They’re really on the ball down there!”

I wonder how many people are fooled by this “perception is reality” con game. I fear the answer is, “A lot.”

I used to work at Allegheny Ford on the Southside. I often saw news crews setting up for a live remote shot across the railroad tracks at the foot of S 6th St. That way the Allegheny County Jail would be in the background across the river. They would sit over there for hours!

Actually on a lot of the newscasts if they’re at a hospital of a shooting/stabbing victim they are really at a different location because they cant show you where the person being treated. Though most people in the hill/north side are either at Mercy or AGH anyways.

WPXI is usually the most guilty of the 3 for abusing the “LIVE from…” shtick when it comes to weather. And as always Dee Thompson will be on top of the Perrysville bridge crossing 279.

They do this because the consultants tell them to do it. Local news here and around the country is not journalism, but an entertainmnet medium whose sole purpose is to get as many people to watch in any given 15-minute period so that they can charge more for commercials. Never make the mistake of equating television news with journalism.

Reporters do not make more money if they are out on a live shot. Auctually, the live shot costs the station no additional money at all. The reporter is paid the same reporting live or in the studio. The photog gets paid the same if he or she is doing a live shot or sitting in the break room. The live trucks are paid for long ago(the station HAS to have live capability)–so a live shot from the county jail(or wherever) really does nothing but supposedly give a viewer the sense that the station is on top of the story–at least that is what the consultants tell them.

I think it is good that Dee goes out to so many live shots. I mean, look at how many times he has actually found a dead body. He’s better than a bloodhound.

Dee Thompson speaks for the dead.

Also, I work on the North Shore. And I swear there is an almost daily “live” shot up here. Like, near PNC, looking at downtown. I’m not really sure why – I guess so that we all know downtown is still there.

The one thing I liked about that Pittsburgh-set newsroom show in the episode I watched was how they stuck the reporter outside in the rain to talk about something that happened hours ago. It really is ludicrous, isn’t it?

Mike, Thanks for clearing that up. I though they got like a hazard pay bonus or something (which Dee should).

I like it when the tiny-town station down near here (Clarksburg, W.Va.) goes to the Weather Cam before the 11 p.m. forecast, showing downtown from a hilltop view, and it looks sort of like the Big Dipper — you can see about seven lights on in the darkness and nothing else. There might as well not be a town there at all. Hilarious waste of technology.

It’s crap like this that convinced me to get out of TV news. I used to work in Johnstown, and every winter -believe it or not- it snowed. [pause while you recover from the shock of that revelation]
And every time it snowed, I was sent out to stand along Route 219 and tell viewers “only damn fools are out in this weather”.
Why do a live shot? Because we could. It was the cool new toy back in the day. Now it has become habit. A bad, nasty habit.

Also, I work on the North Shore. And I swear there is an almost daily “live” shot up here. Like, near PNC, looking at downtown. I’m not really sure why – I guess so that we all know downtown is still there.

I used to live on Mt. Washington, and same deal. At first I would get excited because maybe some big news was happening, but no, they just needed a shot of a talking head in front of the point.

Give Dave a break. It was a nice day out, he spent all afternoon in a casino…don’t begrudge the man some fresh air.

I liked how Dave did his stand-up in front of a fence, and during the report itself he was in front of a curtain. I enjoyed the symmetry. I also liked how Dave used the lingo and said that WV is “upping the ante”. Nicely done.